


SWITCH: Off/On

by orevalc



Series: SWITCH [1]
Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Eventual Smut, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Friends to Lovers, No Underage Sex, Slow Burn, Underage Drinking
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-08
Updated: 2020-05-20
Packaged: 2021-03-03 05:41:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,880
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24069787
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orevalc/pseuds/orevalc
Summary: Two Part Fanfic.Switch Off: Takes Place around 2010 while the characters are highschool studentsSwitch On: Takes Place in the present while the characters are adultsPart I Plot: You’re a new student at Seoul International Academy of Arts. You’re finally coming back to your hometown after 3 years of travelling with your father.  Adapting to traditional education can be very difficult when you have been homeschooled for years. Luckilly you had made some friends: Aereum, a feisty girl that never minces her words, Johnny, the flirty social butterfly and Taeyong, the awkward gamer kid that spends every class sleeping over his desk.
Relationships: Lee Taeyong/Reader
Series: SWITCH [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1736479
Kudos: 6





	1. 1

** PART I **

**Switch Off**

**1**

It was a sunny day during August, something unusual when autumn was beginning to draw near. 

It was your first day of school. You spent the last three years traveling across different countries with your father. He was an anthropologist who had set out to learn more about the different indigenous communities in South America. His latest adventure took you both to Easter Island, where you stayed for about a year. 

You could no longer bear the thought of leaving places and friends almost every six months, so a month ago you gave your father an ultimatum: you had to return to Korea together or you would run away on your own. 

Since the death of your mother, you haven't returned to your hometown and you hoped that returning there would awaken again the feeling of belonging somewhere. 

The school you would attend was Seoul International Academy of Arts, a well-known institution in Korea that is famous for having a flexible curriculum compared to high-performing schools. After being home-schooled for three years, you feared you would not be able to adapt to a traditional school. 

From what you had been told, you were assigned to Class 2A. At that exact time, you were in front of the door of said class, attempting to control your anxiety while also trying to suppress a big yawn. The nervousness caused by the whole situation hadn't let you sleep through the night. _Just do it, how bad could it go?_

You knocked on the door before entering the room, formally greeting the teacher. 

“Hello Y/N, Glad to finally meet you, you may call me Song Seonsaengnim. Ms. Song is also ok since this is an international school.” She looked at you, noticing your nervousness and then added encouragingly: “It would be nice for you to introduce yourself to the class” 

You bowed down to your classmates greeting them in what you expected looked a friendly way. 

“Pleased to meet you, I’m Cha Y/N, I’m 16 years old and I’m just coming back to Korea after spending a year on Eastern Island. Please take care of me!” 

You ended your introduction with a big smile. Some of your new classmates inclined their heads to greet you back. You realized that all your anxiety had evaporated. The group seemed friendly and easygoing. 

“You may sit in the unoccupied seat at the end of the second row.” Said Ms. Song 

You followed the instruction of the teacher and sat in your assigned seat. On your right was a cute girl that smiled at you as you arranged your things. On your left was a strange figure: a boy who had arranged his books on his desk in such a way that they covered him while he slept. The boy straightened up, turning to look at you with a sleepy face. He had dark brown hair that covered the upper part of his metal rimmed glasses. He looked at you with little interest and leaned over his desk again. What a weird kid, you thought.

*

The following days went by without any relevance. The vast majority of your class had not attempted interacting with you. You kept to yourself until today, when two of your classmates asked you to join them for lunch in the yard. They were Aereum, the girl who sat to your right during class, and Johnny, a tall American boy who was the class president. 

Aereum was a short, feisty girl that —as you realized just a few minutes into getting to know her— was brutally honest. You really liked straightforward people, after all, you didn't have time for fake camaraderie. Johnny was a self-confident boy, a flirt, but in a charming, non-assuming way. 

They asked you about your experiences abroad and Johnny told you about his difficulties adapting while being an expat. You were surprised to discover his mother was also a university professor, just like your father was. He and his parents have been living in Seoul for four years. 

"I would love to live abroad," said Aereum. "I have never left Korea because my mother is terrified of airplanes." Last year I tried applying for an exchange program in Australia and she went crazy. I won't give up though. I have been thinking about applying to an acting school in New York ... Just wait and see, in a few years I will be on Broadway, baby! And you peasants will be able to say that you ate kimpab with me at school," she stated confidently, laughing out loud. 

“Anyway, Y/N, I’ve been meaning to ask you: Are you dating?” Interrupted Johnny 

“So smooth, Johnny!” Mocked Aereum 

"No, I'm not--I've never actually dated" you replied, still a little stunned by the question that came out of nowhere, but not ashamed about your answer. 

“What the hell?! why not? You aren’t ugly, kind of tomboyish but there’s people that are into it” asked Aereum 

"Geez! Thank you, Aereum." You said back, low key kind of hurt "I will allow it though because, well, I guess is true?" You conceded 

“Aereum: Behave!” interjected Johnny “She’s jealous, don’t believe a word she says, you are hot and cute…now tell us, why haven't you dated?” 

"Honestly, no one has shown interest in me, I’ve always has been the weird foreign girl. And even if someone had shown interest, it would have been difficult to establish a relationship since I would never know how long I would stay in one place." 

“Hmm, I guess you’re right” said Aereum thoughtfully. “If somebody does pick your interest, let me know and I will be your wing-woman” 

“I think somebody already picked her interest.” - Said Johnny 

"What?!~~~~who?!" You exclaimed while Aereum gasped. 

"Well, Taeyong of course!" Assured Johnny. 

“Really?! I would never have guessed Y/N!” 

“Wait…who? Who the hell is Taeyong?” You asked, both shocked and genuinely curious 

"Taeyong, you know, that guy that sits to your left in class?" 

“The guy that sleeps through all the lectures? I’ve never even talked to him!” 

“Yet I’ve seen you looking at him ~intensely” -Replied Johnny in a suggestive way. 

"Well, I'm just curious"- You Acknowledged "Anyway, what's his deal? Why does he spend all his time sleeping?" 

"I could ask him where he's at right now, you could go there and ask him yourself." Joked Johnny 

You considered his offer. 

You might have been nervous the first day of school, after all, it was a situation in which you didn't know what you were going to face. But talking to a boy? That was something that had never made you anxious. You were usually confident around all kinds of people. 

“You’re right. Why don’t you ask him to come here?” You replied. 

"I will text him; he's probably sleeping in the library." Replied Johnny, wearing a huge smile. 

"You seem close to him?" you asked. 

"Yeah, he's a nice guy. We live in the same neighborhood and play basketball together every once in a while" he said while he looked at his screen and typed. He then looked at you and added: "He will never be the first to approach you, but once you get to know him you will see that he's friendly." 

Then you saw the man in question walking towards your small group. He was slender, broad shouldered and not that tall. Long bangs covered part of his eyes. 

"Hi Johnny," he greeted the tall guy with a handshake. "You want to ask me something?" 

“Well, not me actually. Y/N was the one who wanted to know something” Johnny told him while pointing at you. 

The boy looked down at you. You were seated on a bench and he was standing a few feet away from you. You have never seen him up-close. He had a strong, slightly hooked nose, the sharpest jaw you had ever seen and a pair of impossibly large eyes. You weren’t sure if that was their actual size or if his glasses made them look that large. You were surprised to discover he was handsome. The boy wasn’t saying anything, and you realized you hadn't muttered a word either. You basically had been inspecting his face for at least a minute. Awkward. 

You looked towards Johnny and Aereum. Both were grinning in a teasing way. Oh…Shut up! 

"Hi, Taeyong, right?" He only nodded as an answer. "Well, this might be weird for me to ask and if you don't want to answer I would understand" You blabbered while he kept looking at you attentively-- "Why are you always sleeping during classes?" He seemed taken aback by the question. 

“Why do you want to know?” He replied in what sounded like genuine curiosity. His voice was deep yet melodic. 

“ I wanted to know if you're feeling well…I was wondering if maybe you’re anemic or something like that” 

He gave you the most subtle smile possible, and then he just giggled. 

You certainly didn’t expect that reaction. 

“No, I’m not…I mean yes! I’m well. I’m not anemic” he replied flustered. He then paused for a moment collecting his thoughts. He looked to his side while touching his neck and added: “I just spent too much time playing video games during the night”. 

Not the answer you were expecting to the mystery of the sleepy guy. Surprisingly you were glad, not only because there wasn’t anything wrong with him, but also because apparently you had something in common. 

“I get it. I do that too” 

“You spent the night playing?” 

“Yes, I have insomnia, so I usually play until I get tired enough to sleep, other times I read or watch movies” 

“What do you like to play?” he asked interested 

“Right now, I’m playing Dragon Age Origins and Star Wars: The Old Republic” 

“I haven’t played Star Wars…is it any good?” 

“Yes! I wasn’t very interested in playing an MMOs. I’m mostly a solo player but Star Wars is great, other people don´t annoy you as much and the missions are fun and don’t take forever to complete” You were excited to talk about it. Online playing was also new to you because before coming back to Korea you couldn’t do almost anything that required Internet access. The service on Eastern Island was a disgrace. 

“I will check it out then” 

“Great! Maybe we could play together sometime” Fuck! That sounded like I was suggesting a date you thought. "I mean, I could give you my username and we could team-up online," you mumbled. 

"Yeah, we could do that. Give me your number and I will text you after I install the game," he replied, looking maybe a tiny bit excited. 

You smiled happily. Did you just made a friend that wanted to play with you? It was kind of sad that something like that made you happy, lots of other kids played video games, but it was the first time in years you had met one. 

He offered you his phone and you added your contact information. Before giving it back you paused on his background. It was a beautiful picture of the city at sunset. It didn’t seem like something taken with a professional camera. 

“Did you take that pic?” You asked him. 

“Yeah” 

“It’s beautiful, you're very talented” You said sincerely 

He thanked you awkwardly while looking sideways 

“I gotta go. See you around” he suddenly said and just walked off. 

You realized you were by yourself. Aereum and Johnny had left to you two alone and you hadn’t even noticed. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Your friendship with Taeyong keeps developing. You are assigned to work together in a school project.

**Chapter 2**

You and Aereum had been spending a lot of time together even though you hardly had similar interests. Aereum spent a significant part of his time on social media. As she had told you, on Twitter she had thousands of followers: part of the fandom of Kayla D. a famous American singer of whom you knew absolutely nothing. While she was enthusiastic about all things Western, you remained attached to the musical tastes of your childhood and were a casual fan of SHINee and EXO. Aereum was also active on Instagram and YouTube where she had a channel dedicated to makeup and cosmetics. You were only loyal to red lip tint and a little bit of BB cream when acne hit you. On that day you were at her house and she had asked you to be her model for a makeup tutorial.

Although at first, it was not something you thought might be interesting, now you were actually quite excited about the process and the results.

Aereum's house was about a 20-minute walk from the school. During the journey you had chatted comfortably.

"Did I told you that you will be my second model on the channel? The first was Johnny”

"Did you put makeup on Johnny?" you asked, surprised.

"No!" she replied, laughing out loud. "At the beginning of the first semester Johnny let me dye his hair red," she said.

"Really?...first thing: good choice on the color and secondly, It should surprise me that he let you do it ... but not really. Johnny seems to be the type of person who is willing to allow his friends to use him as a guinea pig if that makes them happy, right?”

"Wow, you’re really insightful about people” she complimented you. “Johnny and I have been best friends since he came to Korea. We went to the same elementary school and he has always been that way. Since I have known him, he has not changed at all. He is one of the most authentic people you will ever meet.” Aereum commented, smiling. "Moving on to another topic, I was wondering if you signed up for a club already. Na-Ra — the tall girl I was with when we met after school — is with me at the Fashion Design club. It would be fun if you joined us”

"Oh…I've already joined two clubs: I am in the Drawing and Painting Club and in the Audio-visual Workshop."

"And how has it been? Have you made any other friends?”

“Yes, at the Audio-visual workshop I met a very nice first year student. His name is Mark, do you know him?”

"Of course! Everyone knows Mark. He’s one of the most well-liked guys in the whole school. Did you know he’s an underground rapper? You know what, we should go see him together someday. The guy kills with his rhymes!”

"Oh, that sounds great! I will ask him if he has any gigs soon”

“By the way, tomorrow is Friday. Do you have any plans?"

"Just the usual. I will watch a couple of episodes of Community and I will probably play online with Taeyong.”

"God! You guys are so boring! That’s why Johnny and I left you alone last week. You just got absorbed in your conversation about Star Trek or whatever you were talking about and just left us out”

"Is that why you left? You could have said something… and just to be clear, we were talking about a Star Wars game, not Star Trek. ” Aereum just rolled her eyes at you.

"How are things going with him?” Aereum hesitated before adding: "I like Taeyong. I feel kind of sorry for him. I’ve tried to get closer to him but he’s so shy, especially around girls. I'm probably the only girl he talks to, and that's only when he asks about Johnny. Anyway, I’m glad you’re hanging out with him."

“At first, he seemed shy to me too, but he's actually quite confident. He may feel uncomfortable in front of other people because —let's be honest—he doesn't have many social skills. But I think is more than that, he’s sort of picky about who he let’s in”

"Are you telling me he doesn’t like me and that’s why he hardly speaks to me?! Aereum said, sounding offended.

“What? No. Not at all. I mean I don’t know him that well yet, but I don’t think he dislikes you”. That seemed to placate her

“Well, then what do you do together?" Nope, not that placated. She still sounded annoyed.

“Nothing special, we agreed to do some missions together. The game only has the text option and not audio chat so it's not like we're talking. I was surprised by the fact that he’s quite competitive and sometimes he…nags at me? Anyhow, now I will have to talk to him more often”

"What do you mean?"

“We have to work together on the midterm project for the English class. The teacher asked me to work with him since it seems Taeyong has not been doing that great on the class recently. Taeyong told me that Johnny usually helped him, but lately he has not been able to because of his responsibilities as team captain of the basketball team and class president. Also, Taeil asked Johnny to work together on this project because he wasn’t doing well on the class either”

“Now that you mention it Johnny told me that he would be working with Taeil. He always works with Taeyong and I always work with Na-Ra. I’m glad you will be helping him, Have you already thought about a topic? ”

“Actually, we haven't even talked about it yet. We arranged to meet on Saturday after his work shift. Apparently, he works in an arcade "

"Yes, it's true, the perfect job for a geek," said Aereum laughing.

*

TAEYONG: Hi, how are you?

YOU: Hi! 😊 I'm fine. What about you?

TAEYONG: I'm ok, thanks for asking.

TAEYONG: Hey, about tomorrow. The Arcade where I work at is in Hongdae and I was thinking that since it’s a touristic spot we could do the English project about that area.

TAEYONG: I mean, if that sounds like a good idea to you.

YOU: I think it's an excellent idea.

YOU: I’ve been doing some thinking too, wdyt about making some kind of documentary?

TAEYONG: I think it's a good idea. We should bring a camera…do you have one?

TAEYONG: I have one but it is not that good :/

YOU: Nope, I broke mine not long ago. Bring yours

TAEYONG: Ok, will do. Anyways, my shift ends at 6PM. I attached a link to the location of the arcade.

[Attached: GPS Location]

YOU: Great. SYT then.

TAEYONG: Hey, how about playing for a bit? ... Let's meet on Coruscant. You could help me Destroy the War Droids.

YOU: Taeyong: that's a level 10 mission. You were only level 5 the day before yesterday. How many hours have you been playing?

TAEYONG: a few.

YOU: How many are a few?

TAEYONG: About 5 or 6 every night?

YOU: That's too much! ☹ Maybe we shouldn't play tonight. I don't want to encourage your bad habits.

TAEYONG: You can't back out now. You got me into this, didn't you? Also, yesterday I saw you online around 3AM too.

YOU: Yes, BUT I DON'T SLEEP IN CLASS.

TAEYONG: Ok, fair enough ... what about playing just for an hour and then we go to sleep together.

TAEYONG: I MEAN

TAEYONG: SIMULTANEOUSLY

TAEYONG: You in your house and I in mine.

YOU: LOL.

YOU: OK. See you on Coruscant 😊

TAEYONG: 😊

* * *

**Saturday**

It was 5PM when you got out of the shower. You figured it would take 30 minutes to get to Hongdae by bus.

At that moment, you were dressing up: worn-out jeans, a white T-shirt with a Rapanui design, Vans shoes and a Fanny pack in the shape of a French bulldog.

Your hair was easy to style, so letting it air dry was enough. You didn't know if you should wear makeup. Aereum taught you how to apply liquid eyeliner and gave you one. Since you will probably be on camera you decided to try it out. You applied it in a hurry so the result didn't end up being very clean and your left eye looked bigger than the right. It wasn’t that bad though. You completed your look with your classic red lip tint, curled your eyelashes, grabbed your things and left your house. Within 3 minutes you had to go back because you had forgotten your phone.

You got to the Arcade in just 20 minutes because you had miscalculated the time and the bus trip was shorter than you expected. You entered the building and inmediately saw Taeyong at the cash register.

"Hey Taeyong! How are you?" you greeted him, smiling, "I'm sorry I got here too early"

"I'm fine, thanks, and don't worry, I'm glad you didn't have trouble getting here” replied Taeyong, seemingly happy to see you. "The guy from the next shift hasn't arrived yet, so you'll have to wait for me a little while" he added, regretfully. "I can give you some tokens for you to play on the machines while you wait"

"Don't worry, I can pay for them. And I have no problem waiting for you" you assured him, smiling.

"No, no, no, take the tokens, I have an employee benefit"

You took the tokens he handed you, giving him an even bigger smile.

He pretended to be annoyed "Could you please stop smiling? You smile too much" he said, looking to the side while trying to hide a smile himself.

"I can't help it! How could I not smile when you are so adorable?" You countered in a fake sugary tone just to tick him off

It had only been little over a week since you had first spoken, but you were already forming a comfortable friendship and you felt at ease joking with him. The first time you told him he was cute, he immediately turned red, laughed nervously, stood up, and then left without saying anything, but apparently, he didn't feel so awkward in front of you anymore.

One of the things losing people had taught you — both your mother when she passed away, and the friends you left behind with each move — was the lesson that it's important to not kept your feelings in. You realized the importance of seizing the day and letting others know that you cared for them. Perhaps it was too early yet, but you already felt that Aereum, Johnny and Taeyong would become important people to you.

Taeyong's coworker didn't take long to arrive. You waited for Taeyong outside the building and once he got out, you took off to walk the streets together.

At the moment, Taeyong was recording with his small digital camera. The plan was to review the images together afterwards and then decide what would seem more interesting for the final video.

As you walked side by side you saw street musicians and stopped to eat fish cakes at a stall. There were many young people, most likely university students. You also checked out some small boutiques and finished your tour in a cozy cafe.

Neither of you ordered any coffee and instead opted for milk tea and since you didn't have enough money, you decided to split a single portion of chocolate cake between the two of you. To strangers' eyes it might have seemed like a date, but it was far from the truth, You had pulled out a notebook, taking notes while Taeyong was excitedly making remarks about what he was looking at on the small camera screen.

“I see that you are very interested in the project. I didn't think you were such a motivated student"

"It's not because of the assignment ... I just really like using the camera" he replied

"What do you like about it?" you asked curiously.

Taeyong considered his answer: “I suppose the main thing is that when you record a particular moment you are able to reprise it later, just as it was. Take this afternoon as an example: in the future we could walk the same streets, around the same people, however it will never be exactly the same. But whenever we watch this, we will be able to see it exactly as it was.” He said, tapping at the camera. He then added: “…But that’s more of the technical aspect of it, there’s also a more artistic aspect: our eyes are always perceiving a huge amount of visual information and because of that, sometimes there are small things we just don’t notice. The camera allows us to focus on those small things that could be otherwise ignored, and depending how you do it, you can show them as something out of the ordinary: something beautiful, something curious, or in whatever way you want to express it.

You stared at him and smiled. This strange boy never ceased to amaze you.

“You are very articulate for someone who doesn't talk much. I could even say that you have a gift with words "

"I have no problem talking but I don't like talking for the sake of it, or with just about anybody” He said, nonchalantly.

"So, can I assume you like talking to me then?" you asked playfully

"Yes," he admitted without hesitation. "In a way you remind me of Johnny, you’re not imposing and you know how to listen.”

"I'm glad to heard that, and also about being compared to Johnny. I like talking to you too."

Taeyong gave you a closed-lip smile that made him look like a kitten. Sweet boy.

You felt privileged about knowing that part of Taeyong. At school, everyone considered him intimidating. Although, from what you heard, during the first year some older students made fun of him and called him names. Apparently, ever since then Taeyong had taken a colder attitude that had alienated him even more from his classmates.

"We should go back to discussing the project. I think before starting to write the script, we should talk in English for a while first, so that I can assess at what level you are at."

Taeyong grimaced at the prospect.

" Okay, let's begin with something simple: ~Hello, my name is Y/N and I'll be working with you on this project. We are going to start by talking about what we did today~”

He seemed hesitant but then finally spoke in a tiny voice ~Hello, I’m Taeyong, I’m class partner of you. Today both went to Hongdae and walked around the neighbourhood~”

"That's not bad, but it should be something like: ~Hello, I’m Taeyong, I’m your partner in this project. Today we went to Hongdae and walked around the neighbourhood together~” Taeyong looked a little bit embarrassed, so you added: “It’s much better of what I was expecting. You know the vocabulary; you just have a few grammatical problems... now I’m wondering why the teacher said that you weren’t doing well in class”

“In the first semester they made us do several oral presentations, and well, I was nervous about speaking in front of the class and the teacher said that he couldn't understand anything from my mumbling”

"I get it" You assured him. “While I'm not a shy person, I do get nervous speaking in front of a group. On the first day of school, before introducing myself, I was very anxious”

"It didn't seem like that at all."

“And how would you know? you were sleeping!"

"I wasn't sleeping, I was just lying on the desk, but I was listening," he added then added mockingly: ~"I'm 16 years old and I'm just coming back to Korea after spending a year on Eastern Island. Please take care of me!"~ You had to concede it was a spot-on imitation of you.

"Please don't tell me that I sounded like that, that's humiliating! Now I understand why nobody spoke to me that first week ”

You two laughed out loud. You had never seen him laugh like that: high pitched, beaming and crunching his nose. Watching him like that made you laugh even more. The laughter gradually died away and Taeyong tried to regain track of the conversation.

"Going back to the Project, I think we should choose the places that are worth talking about and from that we should write a script about what we would say as tour guides."

"Yes, I agree, and about the recording, I think we should take turns showing places and talking in front of the camera while the other voices over. We'll have to practice your pronunciation a little more before recording, though"

"Okay," he replied, a little reluctant at the idea of practicing, "When should we get together? On Monday afternoons we have Arts Club and on Wednesdays we have the Audio-visual Workshop, so it could be Tuesday ”

"Wait, are you in the Arts Club too?" You didn’t had any recollection about seeing him in the last meeting.

"I thought you knew. I didn't go this week because I had to help my mother at the store ”

"I didn't know. It is a strange coincidence don't you think? That we are in the same 2 clubs"

"Why would that be strange? We have almost the same interests and by now we're practically best friends, aren't we?" Taeyong said jokingly, however you hadn't taken it as a joke. Something about what he said had tugged at your heartstrings.

"Yes, I think we are best friends," you replied, without any sarcasm whatsoever.


End file.
